[IC Thread] RWBY: A Fang's Mark (Always Accepting)

Admiral_Stalfos19 · March 12, 2016

(Image Credit goes to Chaos Sonic)

Opening Theme Song: And We Run, by Within Temptation ft. Xzibit

Ending Theme Song: Breakdown, by Seether

As the Bullhead soared along the sky, Jillian McCray jumped up and down and squeed in monumental over-excitement, with her scroll fully expanded and held up to her ear with one shoulder as she clapped her hands very quickly. Going straight to Shade Academy for her 15th birthday was the best present she could ever have already; she couldn't wait to see if anything else would be in store for her. Eventually, Jillian could hear the voice of what sounded like an elderly woman coming through her scroll so she had stopped jumping up and down so much, but she maintained an overexcited demeanor as she began talking through the scroll.

“Ooh, ooh, GranGranGranGran Gran!” Jillian exclaimed, “Guess where I am!”

...

“Nooope.”

...

“Nope.”

...

“Hmmm... close.”

...

“Yeah, yeahyeahyeah I'm in the sky right now, isn't that great?!”

...

“Bullhead, actually,”

...

“Uhhuh, uhhuh, I should be right at the gate in a few minutes, they said,”

In the middle of the call, however, the diamond button on Jillian's scroll began to flash; normally this would be the result of an alert that she could easily respond to later, but this time the button flashed more brightly and in a much more rapid pace than usual, sending constant beeps in her ear. If she remembered correctly, if one of the scrolls would do this, then all of the scrolls that were currently active would react in the exact same manner at the exact same time all over the world of Remnant. Thankfully Jillian could still hear her grandmother's voice in unison with these beeps, as she asked her what all these beeping sounds were.

“It's the scrolls, Gran; they're trying to send us something important. Sorry, but I'll have to call back,” Jillian sighed in guilt as she hang up on her grandmother, knowing her scroll would eventually force such an action regardless of whether she could finish the call or not, “God damn it.”

Sure enough, an urgent broadcast would be projected on all the active scrolls. Jillian could only hope the news wasn't sad enough to ruin her day.

It had been a long flight so far, and Skyler Gallegos was busy relieving herself in one of the many lavatories that these larger Bullheads that were capable of transporting so many more passengers at once had been equipped with. That was when her scroll projected the broadcast, which detailed the prison break that had occurred inside the Vacuo Correctional Facility. Skyler was hooked onto this broadcast out of concern alone, knowing that her father was sentenced there almost seven years ago now; she had high hopes that Malachi wouldn't be among the names that the reporter that announced this broadcast had then listed. None of the fourteen names that she heard rang a bell to Skyler, so at first she breathed a sigh of relief. But her eyes widened in shock, and she clasped her mouth with her hands as the reporter had interviewed the warden about Malachi having orchestrated the whole prison break, the color being completely drained from her skin. The shock was too much it seemed, as her whole body went numb.

“D-... Dad?” murmured a frightened Skyler, tears beginning to form in her eyes. Her hands shifted from covering just her mouth to covering her whole face, before eventually she decided she'd best make a call to a certain someone. Skyler set her scroll on the ground and collected some toilet paper to wipe her eyes with, and then suddenly, the hologram of an adolescent green-haired woman materialized from where Skyler had set her scroll. This adolescent wore a short purple dress with what appeared to be rubies on the side. Both her eyes were also wrapped in bandages, and she had the tail of a snake that, unlike was the case with Skyler, was completely exposed and out in the open for all to see.

“Hello, Skyler,” greeted the young woman, “Is something wrong?”

Skyler hesitated at first; she'd sensed someone outside presumably wanting to use the lavatory that she was still inside of, and turned to see that she had, thankfully, kept the door locked so then the person couldn't just barge in. Sensing that the person had moved on, Skyler turned back to the hologram.

“Um... Lilli?” Skyler shyly adressed, “I... n-need to t-t-tell you s-something. Ab-bout Dad. He... he...”

“Escaped from the VCF, I know already,” the girl that Skyler had called “Lilli” informed, “All of Remnant would've heard by now,”

“B-but...” stuttered Skyler, “...why? Why would he d-do something l-like this?”

“I...” Lilli paused only for a brief moment, “I honestly don't know, and I don't care in the slightest either. Now let's change the subject if you please,”

“Um... O...K? How... h-how's Haven turning out?”

“Well, they were correct in claiming they had more to offer than Shade. But it'd be nice if we didn't have to wear uniforms all the time. Oh, my teammates and I need to get ready for class, so I should get going. Perhaps we'll meet face to face at the Vytal Festival that's supposed to occur next semester.”

“I hope so. I-it'll be nice to see you again,”

With that, Lilli's hologram vanished, and Skyler picked her scroll up from the floor and pocketed it, before unlocking the door and returning to her seat. She felt a little better already, but the fact that Malachi had dared to make such a plan of attack in the first place, never mind the fact that it came to perfect fruition, was still etching the back of her mind. Did that mean that Malachi had finally sided with the White Fang, the very people that Skyler had tried desperately to avoid and the whole reason she was on the Bullhead that would take her to Shade Academy? She wished she could deny this, but... it felt as though she didn't even know her own father any more.

The headmistress of Shade Academy, Irina Tsvyk, had been gazing into the far yonder with a cold stare of impatience. They were supposed to have placed the relics for the initiation test that she had fully prepared by now, but there was still no sign of Team CMLT; a team of four senior students that she tasked with, as well as placing these relics, double-checking the grounds themselves to ensure that the creatures of Grimm had not... overpopulated, to an extent that they'd be too much for the applicants to handle. True, the team would find that they had a lot more ground to cover than Irina may've told them, but all four of them were supposed to be in their final year of training before they would officially become full-fledged Huntsmen and Huntresses; one would think that Irina would no longer have to question their competence. Unfortunately, Team CMLT would not be able to return from the grounds in whence they were ordered to search... at least not before the Bullheads arrived.

There were four large Bullheads that had slowly began their descent, each one filled to their absolute maximum capacity worth of passengers that had applied to become Huntsmen and Huntresses. Irina turned to see the engines of the Bullheads gradually draw to a stop, and their doors open to release the somewhat exhausted passengers. Some of them could be seen stretching their arms and legs, but not all of them would have the chance...

“Ahem!” Irina cleared her throat loudly, this seeming to snap the applicants into paying attention to the speech that she would then give, “Greetings, and welcome all. My name is Irina Tsvyk, and I am the headmistress of Shade Academy. You may all out-heighten me... severely in some cases; I must admit. But I still call the shots around here. Remember that. Now then; I realize some of you have heard a broadcast referring to the sudden prison, and I regret to inform you that most of the names you will have heard are known members of the White Fang. But fear not; in the unlikely event that any of the prisoners turn up here, they'll be apprehended on sight. Furthermore, if the White Fang even dares to rare its ugly face within these premises, its members will be shot on sight.”

She said this in her usual, very stern tone, but all of a sudden, her mouth curved into somewhat of a light smile.

“On a lighter note, we hear that today marks the day of someone's birth; as such, we shall prepare a feast that I'm confident you'll all enjoy,” she continued smiling at first, but she dropped it immediately, returning to her more serious demeanor, “But first, you must all complete an initiation test that I have set up. If you'd follow me please,”

With that, Irina turned her back and walked partway to the grounds that Team CMLT searched, expecting the applicants to follow.

[spoiler=OOC Notes:]As you can see above, Irina will be leading all the aspiring young applicants to the initiation grounds. Details for the initiation will be revealed in my next post(s), but I can tell you right now that it'll be very similar to what can be seen in episodes 4-8 of the first season of the show itself. It will be a long walk to these grounds, so you may discuss the events that transpired in the broadcast if you need substance for your posts. If you would like more information about what the broadcast would entail, then please refer to the plot section in the OOC Thread's OP; hopefully I'd already given you the relevant information there. Another option is to remember that it's Jillian's 15th birthday today.

Meanwhile, Team CMLT should already be at the area where Irina had planned the initiation to be engaged in, having split up to find good places to put the “relics” (which will look very similarly to Lego blocks). Along the way, they'll notice large groups of high-tier creatures of Grimm that they could've sworn were not there before, and show concern that the total number of such Grimm will be too much for this year's applicants to handle. I'll leave what exactly each person sees to you guys; I'm trusting you not to lead yourselves into your own demise. In any case, Team CMLT should ideally meet back up after placing the “relics” down at their chosen hiding spot so they can come to a concensus about what to do about the situation, with Caliburn ultimately deciding that they should report this to Irina. However, I don't want any of you to approach Irina and make said report just yet, so please wait on that until my next post. If you need substance for your posts though, you may reminisce about fighting through the creatures of Grimm during your own initiation, whether via flashback or by openly explaining what happened out in the open.

Cherz · March 12, 2016

Arianna had been detached from the main group, sitting in a corner. Her headphones were blasting music, right from her scroll. Her sun glasses were over her eyes, and she appeared to be sleeping. However, she was very much awake, for a change. She was people watching. Everyone who knew her would have assumed the brat was simply dozing off, yet she had ulterior motives. She had heard that there would be a team selecting activity, so she scouted out who might make for a fair team. Sure, it may have been a bit petty to decide by appearance alone, but first impressions did anything.

"With my head phones on..."

She had just finished singing under her breath to her tunes, when her scroll began beeping, immediately cutting the music off. The persistent beeping to alert her of the security alert beat out her indignant irritation for it, and curiosity got the better of her. Glancing onto her scroll, she saw the most recent notification. Grimm Attack and prison break, and psycho criminal had escaped.

With a deep sigh, she dismissed it, and put her headphones up. Hearing the more recent buzz, she eavesdropped into a conversation happening near her. Her shades over her eyes still gave the impression of sleep, but Ari was more awake more now than ever.

When the Bullhead had finally landed, Ari had lurked near the back of the crowd. Immediately, they were greeted with an introduction, a welcome speech, then a hint at the initiation test. That caught her interest. She shoved a girl infront of her to the side and took her place, eager to make her way through the crowd. Forcefully pushing her way to the front, she ended up standing side by side a figure she had heard of. Looking up at the behemoth, she realized she was by Reiner. She waked by his side, but didn't say a word to him. After all, he was a big deal back at Mirage Academy, and she heard his ego was as large as his height.

Reiner was talking with a few guys from his graduating class, rather excitedly. One of them made mention to the girl that was so nonchalantly sleeping. Reiner shrugged it off. None of that was important right now. Royal and Tea were already on him, but in their stand-down form. He looked at the vast landscape from the window, while talking to some of his acquaintances. Not surprisingly, he had also heard rumors of team selection. In the last hour, he had so many people ask him to join a team, he had lost count. It is so hard to be popular. He thought to himself. Still, the constant team requests were kind of irritating. People who had maybe said hi to him just once started acting buddy-buddy with him. He knew that he was leader material, and so did many others clearly. However, he responded to all of them the same.

"We'll see."

Much to everyone's irritation, that was all they could coax out. Reiner may not have been too bright, but he knew he couldn't just say yes to anyone. Although, the constant requests did flatter him. As he continued to stare out the vast window, his scroll began beeping rapidly, to notify him about an impending news incident. Glancing at it, he stopped for a moment. Anger, rage, fury, and hatred all simultaneously welled up in him. In fact, so much of it all at once he wouldn't have been surprised if a flock of Nevermore attacked the bullhead, drawn from him alone. Immediately closing his scroll, the recent news of Faunus Terrorist Malachi escaping did not sit well with him.

"I'll beat his ass back into that cell, then beat it again for good measure." He muttered silently, under his breath. After taking a few moments to get his anger under check, he regained his composure, and promptly proceeded to act as if nothing was concerning him.

After the Bullhead had landed, Reiner broke off from his little group and lost himself in the crowd. Naturally, people parted for him. It was almost as if they could feel his presence, regardless of if he knew them or not. Moving forward, he took an idea position near the front of the crowd, and listened to the small woman's speech. He noticed he had to look down to meet her gaze, but it was definitely an intimidating one. He listened to her coolly, not paying it his full attention. That was, until the White Fang became a topic of interest. He smiled vastly upon hearing the lack of tolerance for the White Fang, and found himself agreeing. The next part is what really piped his interest though. He would then follow Irina.

Super Chaos Sonic · March 13, 2016

-Eton-

BGM

N-No!!! I'm telling the truth!! There are Beowolves coming!!

Eton shouted at the top of his lungs, tears filling his eyes as he tried so hard to warn those who lived in this province of Vacuo. But try as he might, these people ignored him. He had seen this coming from the first time he lied to these good people about this. He wasn't lying this time though...

PLEASE!! Just listen...to me...

The young boy fell upon his knees, crying as he watched in horror, the multitude of Beowolf Grimm descending upon his home...upon his friends...his neighbors...his family. The place where he grew up, he now lost it all. Now all that was left, was nothing but Grimm and the remains of his home. He turned and ran...he ran away...

My fault... My fault...

He could hear these words chanted over and over again in his mind...before the words began to change. YOUR fault, it was heard. And it grew louder and louder...until Eton stopped suddenly, as he saw the shadowy figures of Grimm: the Beowolves. They began to chant the words he heard, as they watched Eton drop to his knees, holding his ears as he cried out.

The sudden jarring from the Bullhead landing awoke Eton Shepherd from his sleep, as he hit his head slightly on the back of the seat he was in. He exhaled slightly at the fact that it was another nightmare...though he couldn't say he was glad about it. Nightmare or not...what went on in that dream had been haunting him for a long time.

Nevertheless, he sighed as he slowly got up, only to be knocked over on the floor of the Bullhead by a blonde haired man decked in camouflage. The scowl he gave Eton caused him to tremble a bit, and his tone wasn't any help either.

"Watch it, runt!"

"I-I'm sorry..." Eton said quickly, only to watch the man he would soon know as Reiner walk off the Bullhead. He sighed as he slowly got himself up, dusting himself off as he walked off the Bullhead, standing beside the others.

Thankfully, he didn't walk beside Reiner, but rather behind him and a young woman with blonde hair: Arianna. With hands deep into his pockets, he shuffled his feet behind the others. Self-confidence in himself wasn't one thing he had, any more at least. Regardless, he stayed to himself as he just followed the others to where another woman stood: Irina, the headmaster.

“Greetings, and welcome all. My name is Irina Tsvyk, and I am the headmistress of Shade Academy. You may all out-heighten me... severely in some cases; I must admit. But I still call the shots around here. Remember that. Now then; I realize some of you have heard a broadcast referring to the sudden prison, and I regret to inform you that most of the names you will have heard are known members of the White Fang. But fear not; in the unlikely event that any of the prisoners turn up here, they'll be apprehended on sight. Furthermore, if the White Fang even dares to rare its ugly face within these premises, its members will be shot on sight.”

The White Fang? Prison break? Eton swallowed hard, rubbing his arm some as he looked away. He was ashamed to admit it, but he believed that he himself fell asleep during the talking about this. I-I feel so lost now... he thought, before hearing Irina continue.

“On a lighter note, we hear that today marks the day of someone's birth; as such, we shall prepare a feast that I'm confident you'll all enjoy. But first, you must all complete an initiation test that I have set up. If you'd follow me please.”

Eton knew what was going to happen now. He had a few old friends who went to an academy before and for initiation, they would end up be forming teams. And right now...he wasn't even sure who he would want on his team. Currently he still had Reiner and Arianna in front of him...and he currently had a few thoughts.

It's obviously not going to be mister full of himself... Eton thought. He dare not speak it out loud, but it was his mind...he could be like this without prying ears. He...he just seems like a bully...and given my first run in...I...I don't think we'd do good. His eyes went from Reiner to Arianna. I'm...I'm not sure about the lady beside him. I-I wouldn't mind being on a team with her...

Kyng · March 13, 2016

As the bullhead came to a stop, Fay was broken from the trance of her magazine for the time being. She was, truth be told, doing whatever she could to idly pass time on the trip. The VTOL was jam-packed with new students - she felt like a sardine packed tightly in the thing. She relished the facts she managed to find one of the luxurious seats on the thing, otherwise she'd have likely had to stand up the whole flight and frankly that was something she wouldn't mind doing without. Nonetheless, it was coming to a stop, so the stuffy air of the vehicle was soon vacated and sweet, fresh air filled her lungs soon. She loved the outdoors, being cooked up in a vessel with lots of people wasn't her ideal, but that was all in the past now.

In the future was the headmistress talking to the students to fill them in. Within five sentences as Fay paid attention, she rose her brows curiously as it seemed this teacher was exposing weakness quite early on. Was it really that wise to tell your alumni you were insensitive of your height? Fay wasn't too sure about just how sturdy the shots the headmistress was calling, but nonetheless continued to listen on to what was going on.

From what she read ahead she expected this initiation. She was somewhat unsure and intimidated by the notion of White Fang popping up, but regardless she pressed onwards to get on with the whole thing. She sighed for a moment in thought - but that soon went out of her as her eyes glossed over once she noticed a peculiar student wandering by. A crown of golden hair, casting upon a strong, sharp face with firm, emerald eyes. He was like a god, as was his figure - despite the poofiness of the letterman it was clear he was built like an athlete. He was muscular alright, in all the right places. Fay could hardly keep her breath, coming out ragged as she fawned over him for a moment, all the while she was walking on by to the initiation.

Moments after, though, she sauntered up to him and smiled brightly as she introduced herself. "Hey!" In a friendly demeanour, she flashed her cutest smirk and extended her hand to Reiner. "My name's Fay Reine. I figured it'd be nice to make some friends early, you know? Especially in this initiation, I hear it is really intense so I could use a strong guy like you to keep me safe and such~ So what's your name?"

King K. Azo · March 16, 2016

As the Bullhorn flew high in the sky, Rohin tried to make himself comfortable in seats clearly made for smaller people. That, combined with this being the first time he really flew inside made for one uncomfortable Fanus. He tried to take his mind off of it by reading a book that a friend from Mirage gave him before he was... promoted. It was an odd book though, as it had a lot of pictures and read right to left instead of left to right. Still, the struggles of the blue robot that this book chronicled made for a gripping read. He would have to find the other issues. Especially when he finished the book halfway through the flight. Trying to pass the time, the Fanus leaned against the window and closed his eyes, trying to catch up on some sleep.

That turned out to be a bad idea. The image of that man was all he saw, back to him as flames burned around him. "Much too weak!" The man taunted, dropping his weapon to the ground, taunting him even more, letting him know he didn't need the weapon. He could defeat him even if Rohin mastered the sword. The nightmarish man then turned and raised his hand in the air, flames gathering in his hand. "Vanish!" he commanded before the nightmare ended.

Rohin woke up in a silent fright, sweating a bit as he looked around. That's right... he was safe on a Bullhead, headed to Shade Academy. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself. Shaking his head, he noticed that the ship was landed. Good, he could get off this accursed thing and back to solid ground. He was the first to stand up and to head for the exit, pushing past people to get off this metal sky prison!

“Ahem!” He heard someone clearing their throat, which caused him to look over at the person. She was... short. Then again, almost everyone was shorter than him. “Greetings, and welcome all. My name is Irina Tsvyk, and I am the headmistress of Shade Academy. You may all out-heighten me... severely in some cases; I must admit. But I still call the shots around here. Remember that. Now then; I realize some of you have heard a broadcast referring to the sudden prison, and I regret to inform you that most of the names you will have heard are known members of the White Fang. But fear not; in the unlikely event that any of the prisoners turn up here, they'll be apprehended on sight. Furthermore, if the White Fang even dares to rare its ugly face within these premises, its members will be shot on sight.”

White Fang, huh? He really didn't know about it, growing up isolated and all, but he heard they were bad. He would like to hear their side, but he doubted they would talk to him. Oh well... he had more important things to worry about.

“On a lighter note, we hear that today marks the day of someone's birth; as such, we shall prepare a feast that I'm confident you'll all enjoy,” she smiled for a split second before going back to her serious face., “But first, you must all complete an initiation test that I have set up. If you'd follow me please,” With that she walked off. Rohin sighed and grabbed the grip of his weapon before he walked after her. He would past this test, and be admitted into this Academy, so he could become stronger. He would become stronger, so he could save that man...

Admiral_Stalfos19 · March 19, 2016

As Irina turned to leave after giving her speech, all the other applicants had followed her for a rather long trek down the desert. Right at the back of the amassed crowd was Skyler, who'd purposely stayed several inches backwards due to a sense of agoraphobia that she always had. Jillian also happened to be randomly near the back of the crowd, moving her upper body as if she was dancing to an unknown rhythm. This seemed to peaked Skyler's interest in the dark-skinned birthday girl ahead of her.

“Um... excuse me,” Skyler addressed Jillian, “Why are you... dancing?”

“Oh, this? It's just to keep my body moving, which I have to do or else it'll twitch on me,” as she explained, Jillian instantly recognized Skyler's face the second she turned to face her, “Wait... aren't you the girl who I saw come out of Levi's office?”

“I... don't recall,” Skyler looked away as she said this.

“Hmm, yeah I definitely saw you... but it must've only been in passing,” Jillian decided, before extending a hand, “I'm Jillian by the way,”

“...SSSS-Skyler,” the faunus hesitated briefly, but the two eventually shook hands, “Nice to meet you,”

...

So the two girls had made some light conversation as they walked, until suddenly they heard a commotion up ahead. From the looks of it, there was a scuffle between a taller-than-normal female human and an even larger musclebound faunus, no doubt of who was male. The faunus in particular had stood out due to a horn that had protruded from where one would expect the nose to be located, with the tip of said horn just reaching about center forehead level. His attire, however, was considerably more plain, as he'd worn a simple black T-shirt, a pair of navy blue jeans and a pair of heavy steel-toed boots. The girl, however, had a different attire altogether. She had a brown billowy V-neck shirt with princess sleeves and a pair of cargo pants with pronounced hip and rear pockets. The idea was that her clothing would allow the girl to portray an illusion of having a sense of curvature to her body; something she lacked in actuality. Finally, the girl had worn what appeared to be Roman sandals to complete the look.

The scuffle ended with the male of the two shoving the girl off to one side, the latter landing on her butt as the former trudged on ahead in anger. Barely understanding what the deal was with between the two, Skyler and Jillian looked at each other awkwardly. Thankfully, Jillian was able to take the initaitive.

“Hey, you OK down there?” Jillian asked, extending a hand for the girl to grab if need be, “Need help getting up?”

“Ugh, I'm fine, really,” the girl had gotten up herself and dusted the sand off from her pants as she said this, “Hope this sand didn't get into my... Oh! I'm Lectrie by the way, nice to meet you I guess; certainly would've been nicer than that other jabroni who just stepped on my toe! Y'know what he did? He claimed it was my fault for cutting in front of him! Which of course I didn't actually do because why the hell would I cut in front of some meat-head like that(?)...”

“I'm... sorry to hear that,” Skyler's eyes diverted from Jillian and Lectrie to the faunus that had argued with and shoved the latter out of his way as she said this, “I wonder if any of us are gonna be stuck with him.”

“Pfft, I hope not,” Lectrie scoffed, “I swear, if they put me of all people with him, they'll have my temper to deal with.”

All the applicants continued to trek through the desert following Irina, but eventually the latter had come to a stop, turning to the former lot as they were talking among themselves. This time though, their attention was garnered a bit more... immediately, as a lot of them had grown curious about a trio of large cannons that they would've all stopped in front of. All three had their hatches open, and each of those had a 305cm (10') diameter, meaning that the insides of the cannons would easily accommodate the applicants no matter how tall or bulky they were. The cannons themselves were a massive 1067cm (35') long, and had been set at various angles between 56^o and 80^o. They were pointing in one way; somewhere to the northeast. Many of the applicants upfront had oohed and ahhed at the sight of the technologically advanced cannons that stood before them, before Irina had spoken. One thing was for sure; they were all going to be in for a surprise.

“Your attention please; I shall now detail how the initiation shall begin,” Irina stated solemnly, “As you can plainly see, before you all stand three cannons. I will call out your full names in groups of three; if your name was called first of the three names I called, you will enter the left cannon, if it was called second you'll enter the center cannon and if it was called last, you'll enter the one on the right. After entering the cannon itself, the hatches will automatically close behind you. I shall then activate the launch sequence, which I can do from my scroll. Once the launch sequence has been activated, at least 25 different sets of co-ordinates will be randomly generated by the algorithm that I've pre-programmed, and the cannons will adjust their latitudes and longitudes as each co-ordinate is generated before they will launch you into the Scapolite Glades; if you see the cannons beginning to vibrate or feel those vibrations, that'll be why. I can safely garuantee that the co-ordinates that the cannons ultimately use will not cause you to collide with anyone else by themselves; as such, if such an event does occur, then it'll be your own fault and you'll be disqualified. If you assist anyone with landing safely on the ground, then you and the person you assisted will also be disqualified; you must all come up with your own landing strategies. Once you land on the ground, the first person you made eye contact with will be your partner. The two of you will be looking for relics that one of our senior teams had already scattered across the Scapolite Glades. The relics will be in pairs, just so you know. Oh, and bonus points if your landing strategy does not involve using any of the seven lakes that make up the Scapolite Glades. Those of you who're confident in avoiding said lakes will thank me later for encouraging such a thing, I can assure you.”

Irina smirked as she said those last two sentences, but her eyes had lit up as she said one more thing.

“Jillian McCray, please come forward,” she announced.

With a smile on her face, Jillian made her way all around the crowd and in front of Irina. Of course, Jillian could've just as easily flown over the crowd by using her Crested Vaporizer, but that would only give away that she would never have to even devise a landing strategy as the weapon would have that covered. Not to mention that Irina would disapprove of Jillian showing off like that. Nonetheless, Jillian arrived at Irina's side... and was about to be given a massive advantage, courtesy of today being her birthday.

“You have three decisions to make, Jillian,” Irina stated, “Your first is which order you'd...”

“First, please!” Jillian intervened in an overexcited tone.

“O...K. Interesting...” after saying this, Irina opened up a file on her scroll that had listed all the applicants' names in groups of three, found Jillian's name and brought it all the way up to the top in place of someone else's before addressing the girl herself, “Next, who'd you like to take with you?”

“Well... I gotta take my main gal Lectrie with me. And then, hmm...” Jillian had wanted to take Skyler with her, but the shaking of the latter's head and the waving of her hands, as well as the scared look on her face as she did this, convinced the birthday girl to reconsider. She'd taken a while to decide as a result.

“That girl over there,” she eventually stated, pointing to a girl who'd stood out from the crowd with her mostly blue attire, tinted sunglasses, brown boots and hat.

“Finally, please stand by the cannon that you'd like to enter,” said Irina as she had been pre-occupied with looking for the photo of the girl that Jillian had pointed to and figuring out the girl's name; once done, she moved that name up to the top and did the same with Lectrie's, before looking up to see where Jillian was before making one more adjustment and calling out the names as they appeared, “Jillian McCray, Uekleva Gill, Lectrie Honeydew!”

Lectrie had found herself walking straight through the crowd, being careful not to go near the faunus that had metaphorically bit her head off earlier, among a few other meat-heads, before making her way to the right cannon. Before entering it though, she turned to Jillian, who'd been standing next to the left cannon this whole time.

“Welp, I tried to get Skyler to come with,” she shrugged her shoulders as she said this.

“Meh, it's fine,” Jillian replied, “Maybe she'll learn something by going later,”

That said, both girls ended up going into their respective cannons at the same time, with the hatches closing behind them. After a short while, the cannons whirred into life, shaking the girls up as they constantly altered their latitudes and longitudes before finally shooting the two out.

“WHOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!” they screamed in delight as they soared into the sky.

“Phew,” Skyler breathed a sigh of relief as she dodged the bullet that was being first out of the gate. Lectrie had tried to guilt-trip the serpentine faunus into agreeing to come with them, but it had apparently been too little too late, as Jillian had picked that someone completely random from the crowd instead; this in turn got her name called out first rather than Skyler's. Incidentally, Irina called out three more names that felt completely foreign, and another girl and two boys approached the cannons... only to stratch their heads as to how they were meant to get inside. The female of the three turned to face Irina, but before she could complete the question she had for her...

“Just open it from the side,” Irina answered; sure enough, the three got in and were fired so the headmistress could move on, “Carmilla Esced, Arianna Bradford, Eton Shepherd!”

What must have been many more names had been called out, before Skyler had started to feel drowsy, half-closing her eyes and rocking her head from side to side, as she counted sheep that she'd imagined as they were jumping over an equally imaginary fence. She could've done this all day, and in the perfect world, she'd wake up to find that she was one of the three last applicants to have their names called out. She wouldn't have even minded the sheer amount boredom that came with such a long wait; it'd certainly beat the daunting effects of being shot out of the cannon itself. Unfortunately, Skyler was in for a rude awakening.

“Fay Reine, Reiner Rex, Skyler Gallegos!” Irina next called out.

“Wait, WHAT??!!” a startled Skyler yelled out in distress. There were still too many souls that could've gone before her, yet she most definitely heard her name right at the end of that last group of three. There was only one thing for it; as much as it pained her, Skyler would have to try and convince Irina to make a revision. As such, Skyler shyly slithered all the way around the crowd, stopping right next to Irina just as Jillian did when the headmistress first called her up.

“Er... M-Ms Tsvyk?” Skyler stuttered, “I th-think there was a m-mistake. I w-...”

“Perhaps there was a mistake... on your end,” Irina intervened, using a heavily sarcastic tone, “Name?”

“Um... Sk-kyl-ler... G-Gall-l-legos?” answered a hesitant Skyler.

“Then no, there was no mistake,” Irina replied, “Get in,”

“B-bu...” the headmistress gave Skyler a cold, blank stare, implying correctly that she was gonna have none of it. She saw what this snake was trying to do, and it wasn't going to work. At all. Defeated, Skyler turned away as she was shot down, gulping before opening the hatch to the right cannon where she was to clamber inside and... well, clambering inside. However, her nerves had gotten the best of her once again, as the cannon whirred to life and tossed her around and around inside.

“Oh no. What the hell did I get myself into? This.. this isn't right, this isn't right! Let me out, please! Please?! I'll do anythiiiiiiEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!” Skyler couldn't help but let out a blood-curdling scream as her pleas fell on deaf ears, being propelled out the cannon straight over the other two applicants that had been shot out of their own cannons, and seemingly in the opposite direction. She could've sworn she'd crash into either one of them despite Irina's garuantee. Watching from below, Irina could only facepalm as Skyler tried to evade a collision that she was adamant was never going to happen.

“Hopeless woman,” Irina said after a heavy sigh, before calling out more names, “Rohin Bane, Zachariah Cerule, Yubaba Titanya!”

Sure enough, the faunus that had confronted Lectrie made his way past the crowd and entered the center cannon.

Cherz · March 19, 2016

Reiner noticed a girl suddenly approached him. He looked down to meet her hopeful gaze, but his seemed very uninterested. He took her hand, and was surprised by the strength and force of the shake. He was definatly not expecting this. He looked her over, not recognizing her. He assumed she was from a different school, especially since she didn't know him. The biggest give away, naturally. After all, everybody loved him. Or so he thought. He thought she might prove useful as a homework pawn if they were on the same team.

"My name's Fay Reine. I figured it'd be nice to make some friends early, you know? Especially in this initiation, I hear it is really intense so I could use a strong guy like you to keep me safe and such~ So what's your name?"

"I'm Reiner."

He seemed rather indifferent, and in truth he was a little off-put by the fact she said she needed protection. This wasn't a daycare, it was preperation for the real job at hand. But, he said nothing of his true intentions, and just continued walking forward. That was, until he heard the scuffle. Turning back to Fey, since she was all there was to talk to, he opened his mouth to speak again.

"See that pissy little faunus up there? Its best to avoid him. I'll give ya that tip now."

However, he was cut short by the arriving at the target destination. Immediately the Jillian girl was called up, maybe since it was her birthday? He didn't really know or care, but he had overheard some talk. He couldn't help but notice Jillian meet that other girl...Skyler. She seemed terrified. He knew her from back at Mirage. The poor girl was probably even afraid of her own shadow. He had taken advantage of her a few times in the past, but this was a new start. He still wondered how that petite thing got here so fast. She wasn't too good at anything, excet her academics. But, only time would tell if she belonged here. Noting some of the others go up, he eagerly awaited his turn, until finally he heard his name.

Reiner naturally strolled up to the cannon, his self assured walk. He had to resist the urge to trip Skyler as they approached the cannons, and luckily for her he did. He shot Zach a dirty glare, before continuing onward to the cannon. He pulled her gloves tightly on, then opened a red dust vial, pouring its contents into a slot on his gloves. He did the same to his cleats, being sure they were stocked for it. He entered his cannon, and heard Skyler whining behind him.

"Does she ever not cry?" He thought to himself, before taking a preparation stance, as if he was about to make a mad dash towards a soccer ball. He felt the vibrations of the cannon readjusting itself.

BOOM

Reiner felt the launch, and as soon as it happened, he activated one of his cleat's functions. As an explosion happened from behind him, in addition to the cannon fire, Reiner was shot at an incredible velocity. Soaring through the skies, the scent caught him off guard as he neared. It was absolute revolting. Reiner couldn't see where it was coming from, but it smelled to him like death and decay. A thick blanket of fog obscured the sight below. He plunged it, before realizing there were no nearby trees for him to cling to. Quickly improvising, he punched the air behind him, setting off another spark from the dust vial, and landed in the water. Rather, the water seemed to part for him, like a meteor. Thankfully, there was a sandbar just 3 meters away from him. He converted the energy into a mightly leap, bounding from his crater, moments before the water rushed in to fill the gap he had left within it. He made it onto the sand bar not a moment too soon.

"That went well. Now, to find a teammate who can match all this in the fog...hm."

Arianna had been strolling along side Reiner when some bubbly girl approached him. Ari eyed her up and down, not recognizing her. The poor girl seemed head over heels for the jock, but seemed to be making no progress. Ari held back a laugh. The poor new girl was in for a rude awakening soon enough. Reiner was not the nicest person, and he was so full of himself. Or so she had heard from the rumors anyways. She also noticed the scuffle between the girl and the met-headed Faunus. He seemed a lot like Reiner, but she knew the history. If they weren't mortal enemies, they would probably be best friends.

What caught her interest was when Irina began explaining the nature of the assignment at hand. This was the exciting part. A smile made its way onto her lips. No more drama, no more waiting around. It was time to get into the action. She revealed her compressed Sniper Rifle and somewhat leaned on it as she awaited her name. First was the Jillian girl. Ari knew of her, but not much. She truthfully didn't care either. Jillian seemed to hyper. Next she called up the girl who got in a fight with the giant faunus. Then, before she called up the faunus she was walking with, she just picked a random face in the crowd.

Ari waited for what felt like an eternity to hear her name being called, along side Carmilla and Eton. She hardly knew either of them, but just based off their looks alone, she knew she would try to avoid them. She had no interest in babysitting. Carmilla seemed groggy and Eton seemed nervous, basing things off face-value. Before entering the cannon, she extended her large rifle, allowing it to reach full size. She loaded the dust rounds, and her standard rounds, but removed the Goliath ones, and placed them in her belt. She was ready to roll. She entered the cannon, and soon enough it began to vibrate, as Irina said it would. And then...

BOOM

Ari was soaring through the air. However, as she neared a large blanket of fog, a rotten stench hit her nose. Trying not to vomit, she almost broke form. Almost. But, as she entered the fog, and soon enough saw the rapidly approaching tar...or water, whatever that black mess was, she pointed her rifle at the ground and flipped a switch on Maleficient Somno. She pulled the trigger, and it fired a Goliath round. Well, not quite. It tried to, but no bullets were in the chamber. But the sheer force of it trying to launch the bullet propelled her right back into the air. She caught sight of a piece of drifting wood and angled herself to land on it. As soon as she did, she regretted it. The piece of wood creaked, and make like it was going to snap. With a nimble flip, she departed from it before it split in half, and landed on a giant Lilypad. With the tr-like water surrounding her lonely raft, she considered dipping her hand in to paddle herself, then thought better of it.

"Well this sucks. I can't see anything through this fog..." She silently fumed.

Naturally, an idea came to her. Aiming her gun backwards, she fired a few standard rounds, propelling her and the giant Lilypad forward. Immediately after, she activated her semblance. Within seconds, the girl was gone from sight. She stood motionless on the wayward drifting Lilypad. This way, she wouldn't have to make eye contact with someone she didn't want to partner with.

Kyng · March 20, 2016

"I'm Reiner."

Those words sang to Fay's very soul. Such a strong, powerful name befitting the man with the body that Hercules himself would envy. Her eyes practically sparkled as he began to walk up ahead. Following his lead like a lost puppy, so thoroughly head over heels, she barely paid attention to what was really going on besides what she really needed to know. Can you imagine how happy she was to know Reiner would be launching in time with her too? Practically squealing with excitement hearing this, she eagerly sauntered up to her cannon and shot Reiner a wink and a giggle, before entering the cannon soon after. In the darkness of the chamber there wasn't much to do other than wait and prepare one's landing strategy, but fortunately, that just so happened to be Fay's forte.

"Mm, I bet hunkasaurus over there'll be bewitched by this~" Fay giggled to herself as she knew exactly what to do as the cannons began to whir into life. With her head out of Cloudcuckoo Land and back in reality for a moment she noticed the whining of her neighbour to her right. Wincing from her whining, Fay rolled her eyes. While it was all well and reasonable to be nervous about something like this, why else would she be here if not for the risks and dangers that come with the life of a huntress? Her focus then fixed itself back to the cannon as it vibrated, as explained before to adjust things like trajectory and the like. Getting ready to take flight, it wouldn't be much longer before the cannons fired.

With a might boom, the cannons fired the initiates into the skies and with the adrenaline of the skies with her, Fay activated her semblance and, lo and behold, a pair of butterfly wings of a pure bright green light appeared upon her back, and began to channel and launch the air they took in behind them. Taking flight she eagerly looked around for Reiner, hoping the display would impress, however he was nowhere in sight. The fog was far to vast, and thick, to make sense of it all. And the stench was utterly revolting. Wincing from the overwhelming heft of the swamp's musk, Fay almost teared up and her flight path suffered somewhat, however she gradually began to descend into the swamp.

Slowing down was easy enough, allowing Fay to encroach on her landing sight easily enough. Gently hovering with her wings of light, the shining of which managed to pierce the fog somewhat, she scouted around for a safe place to land. She had absolutely no idea of what lurked in the lands, but she knew they wouldn't be friendly. It was far different from the beauty of the forests, much more foreboding, almost chilling. Regardless she found herself a footing and, with this, drew her recurve bow. Her wings vanishing, she constructed a photo-kinetic string and arrow as she began to stalk the swamp, whistling idly by - while many might consider this a dangerous move, Fay's confidence felt that whatever heard the whistle, fate would call either her partner, or her arrow's target.

"Yoo~hoo~? Is there anyone out there~?"

Mr. Hyde · March 20, 2016

"Gack! I'd hoped to never return to this damned swamp again!" Lazuli said as he trekked through the Scapolite Glades. "I swear...the stench gets worse every year!" As he walked, he juggled the relic he was entrusted to place back and forth between his hands. He wondered where he would place the damn thing. Before he got too lost in thought, he stepped into a rather deep puddle of mud...or was it slime?! It felt like deja-vu. He quickly jerked his leg out of the disgusting pool and shivered as he looked at his gunk encrusted leg. "This place will be the end of me...I swear it."

Lazuli went to go lean against a rotting tree, shaking the slime off his leg, hoping to get it as clean as possible. It sure did bring back memories though. Back all those years ago, where he himself would stand among the rookies, and the prodigies who were favored to enter Shade Academy. All those years ago and he still had yet to learn his lesson about all the nasty bile that lay on the glade's grounds. He had stepped into some sort of muddy sinkhole, and surrounded by low level grimm. That was until, however, Caliburn had showed up to save his blind booty. It wouldn't be the last time he had saved Lazuli's life either.

The glades were much more vivid back then...but every time he had revisited this place, it became increasingly decrepit. He could sense Grimm crawling all over the place now. In the noisy background of the glades, Lazuli could hear the loud sounds of old trees being pushed aside. They were in the way of something....something big. He inched his head around the corner of the rotting tree he had leaned up against, only to notice a rather large Death Stalker. They were a stronger variety of Grimm, but they weren't uncommon among the glade dwellers. However, he noticed it was odd when he spotted two more Death Stalkers on each side, marching in sync across the swamp. He went unnoticed, as the scorpion-like creatures moved away from his position.

"Whoah....So many of those guys out today....I wonder if the rookies can handle it..." He had his doubts. It was hard for him to take down even one of those things during his trial.

Before he would go and tell the others, he still had an obligation to place the relic somewhere. This tree had provided many things for him today: A resting spot, and cover. Why not add relic hiding spot to the list? Lucky for him, on the other side of the tree, there was a rather large hole that would provide enough space for the relic to reside within. As he placed the relic inside of the tree, he patted it's rotting trunk.

"You have served me well today tree! You have my thanks." He bowed to the tree and almost laughed. Turning back his attention towards the previously mentioned Death Stalkers, he ran off searching for the rest of CMLT. They had to know that strong Grimm were abundant. Something felt off about the whole thing.

Super Chaos Sonic · March 21, 2016

-Caliburn-

BGM

It was nostalgic to be setting foot back in the Scapolite Glades. For Caliburn Artorigus, this was where his journey in Shade Academy began...and the birthplace of Team CMLT. He still questioned why he had was wrangled with Lazuli at the beginning of the initiation back then, but he couldn't reminisce on these happy memories...

Not now anyway...

So it wasn't just the Death Stalkers Lazuli saw...even more than the King Taijitus that Mary noticed... Caliburn thought, keeping his distance as he watched over head a Nevermore feather falling from overhead.

About this time he saw/heard the new recruits being launched into the glades, shaking his head as he pulled out his Scroll. "CMLT...reconvene at Headmaster Irina's location. Be prepared to give your reports." he said, before moving quickly to where Irina was. They needed to report to her...and they needed to do it soon.

Caliburn was, of course, the first to return to Irina's location at the top where the students were launched from. He began to dust himself off, at least trying to be presentable as he made his stride towards Irina. He paused before seeing the headmaster acknowledge him.

"Headmaster." he began, a small smile forming. "You will be happy to know that Team CMLT has successfully completed the task you gave us for preparing the glades." he said, before sighing. "However, things are apparently going not as we had hoped."

Caliburn noticed Irina's expression changing as he crossed his arms, looking down at the glades. "My teammates and I have noticed an alarming amount of Grimm in the area. And I'm afraid that most of these aren't your typical run of the mill ones." he sighed. "I myself don't have all the details on the other species, but Mary, Lazuli, and Tamsyn have seen them and will be reporting on their sightings."

-Eton-

“Your attention please; I shall now detail how the initiation shall begin. As you can plainly see, before you all stand three cannons. I will call out your full names in groups of three; if your name was called first of the three names I called, you will enter the left cannon, if it was called second you'll enter the center cannon and if it was called last, you'll enter the one on the right. After entering the cannon itself, the hatches will automatically close behind you. I shall then activate the launch sequence, which I can do from my scroll. Once the launch sequence has been activated, at least 25 different sets of co-ordinates will be randomly generated by the algorithm that I've pre-programmed, and the cannons will adjust their latitudes and longitudes as each co-ordinate is generated before they will launch you into the Scapolite Glades; if you see the cannons beginning to vibrate or feel those vibrations, that'll be why. I can safely guarantee that the co-ordinates that the cannons ultimately use will not cause you to collide with anyone else by themselves; as such, if such an event does occur, then it'll be your own fault and you'll be disqualified. If you assist anyone with landing safely on the ground, then you and the person you assisted will also be disqualified; you must all come up with your own landing strategies. Once you land on the ground, the first person you made eye contact with will be your partner. The two of you will be looking for relics that one of our senior teams had already scattered across the Scapolite Glades. The relics will be in pairs, just so you know. Oh, and bonus points if your landing strategy does not involve using any of the seven lakes that make up the Scapolite Glades. Those of you who're confident in avoiding said lakes will thank me later for encouraging such a thing, I can assure you.”

This just made Eton sick to his stomach. He knew this was going to be their way to get into the Glades to start their initiations...but, it just felt strange to him. Eton was about to ask something...but...

“Carmilla Esced, Arianna Bradford, Eton Shepherd!”

Eton gulped, slowly making his way towards the cannon along with Carmilla and Arianna, the woman who Reiner was with earlier. To be quite frank, Eton was nervous. And it was definitely evident to those around him. "U-Um...Headmaster..." he said, walking as he spoke. "You said we're to come up with our own landing strategies...w-what does that entail? A-Are there parachutes?" he asked, before he and his group were in the cannon, with the door shut behind them. "I-I'll take that as a no..."

The young boy could feel his heart racing even more now, as he swallowed hard again. Eton wanted to try and walk back out to talk to the Headmaster, hoping that this wouldn't ha-

BOOM

Within moments, Eton was in mid-air, flailing like a poor tuna out of water...and from the sounds of it...screaming like a banshee.

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

-Eton & Arianna-

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Eton continued to yell as he neared closer and closer to the glades, still flailing like a fish, as he tried his best to figure out a landing strategy...none came. "Oh god please don't let this be the end of me!!" Eton shouted, finally remembering something. "S-Semblance! Semblance...alright...f-five is too much...just one!"

He began to concentrate as a summoning glyph appeared nearby him. Suddenly, from it shot out a spectral wolf as it's teeth grabbed the collar of his hoodie and shirt, before making the descend, finally safely landing on the ground. "O-Oh...jeez...that wasn't fun at all." he tried to catch his breath, only smiling faintly at the spectral wolf. "T-Thanks!" And with that, the wolf vanished.

Eton sighed as he stood up right, moving slightly to his left, only to feel himself landing in the muddy ground, only to get stuck. "W-Wha? Oh c'mon...this...is...NOT...cool!!" he grumbled as he struggled his hardest to get unstuck.

"H-Hellooooooo? I-I'm stuck!!!"

Ari was still invisible, atop her drifting lilypad, when she heard someone calling for help. Her Lilypad hit the bank of a sandbar. To her dismay, she saw the kid who launched with her, leg deep in the mud. He must have stepped onto the wrong spot and sunk.

"How Pathetic..." She muttered under her breath, inaudible.

Unfortunately, this timing was the worst. She knew she only had a few more seconds on her invisibility before it expired. She quickly got off the lilypad and started to tread lightly. She knew how to look for muddy spots, and avoided them with care. As she slowly made her way, she crossed in front of his path. Maybe if he was looking for her, he could have identified it, but there was no way he would be expecting it. He had no clue, as seen by his eyes literally gazing right through her. He turned away, looking around, but neither of them could see anything lurking in the fog.

This was her chance. Her cloak had just ended, and he had no idea she was but 10 feet away from him. Continuing to back up slowly, into the fog cover, she was just about to escape, when she felt something brittle crunch and snap under her foot. A decayed bit of wood. Naturally, Eton's gaze would surely meet hers, and to that fact she sighed.

"Damn it..." She muttered, now staring directly at him.

Eton heard the ruckus only to see Arianna there, their gazes meeting. "U-Uh...hi there..." he said, waving slightly. He continued to struggle a bit in the mud, only to see Arianna turning away and beginning to walk off.

"H-Hey!! W-Wait!" he grumbled, sighing as he shook his head. "N-Not like I need help getting out or anything..." Eton lied through his teeth. "W-We're supposed to be partners..."

Cosmo. · March 21, 2016

Mary was standing near a rotting tree to pick off pieces of its bark and of the mushrooms and molds growing on it, she decided to take advantage of the situation and to take some species to research and experiment on, they could probably make some extremely powerful poisons or antidotes. "Wait, why was i here for? Oh yeah, right, the relic!" She said as she took the glowing.... thing out of her bag and looked for where to hide it. "Yes, under the mud! So obvious yet so hidden! I'm a genius!" She said as she proceeded near the pond. "Purify!" She said as she casted the spell with Alkalurops. Glowing lines started forming around the mud and it then disappeared, turning the water crystal clear. She placed the relic in the decided spot and then steeped out of the water. As soon as she stepped out, the water returned as dirty as it was. She looked around the Glades, reminiscing the day she arrived there and the trial. "Wow, those are quite the bunch of Grimms. Imagine if i'd substitute everyone of these with a clone of me, now that would be funny!"
Her thoughts were interrupted by a call from Caliburn "CMLT...reconvene at Headmaster Irina's location. Be prepared to give your reports."

---------------------------------------

"COMING!" She said as she ran towards the spot where Irina and Caliburn were standing, almost crashing onto him. "Ok, so, reports.... There were a lot of kaijus, like a lot, like very very many. If memory serves me right, i saw at least 2 King Taijitus. I also took some time to analyze the plant life of the area and noticed that through the years it got a lot worse, if someone gets wounded, infection would be quite probable if they were to touch any of the plant life. I feel like some help from us might be necessary. Now that i'm thinking about it... Hiding the relic under the mud probably wasn't the most brilliant idea. Anyway, my analysis isn't 100% accurate and i might need a bit more time to find the poisonousness of the plants and the mold." She said getting more and more worried as she spoke. Mary and Caliburn were now just waiting for the others to report

King K. Azo · March 22, 2016

Rohin looked on in amusement. Being fired out of cannons, huh? He didn't realize he was joining one of those 'circuses' he had heard of. He really would have to check one out soon...

“Rohin Bane, Zachariah Cerule, Yubaba Titanya!” He heard his name called. With nay a word, he headed up to the cannon, looking it over before climbing in the hatch. The large fanus made himself comfortable inside of the large metal tube as he pondered to himself. He didn't have wings, so he couldn't just glide to the ground. Landing on his feet would probably shatter his ankles... This was a bit of a pickle.

He heard a mighty boom as he was suddenly propelled through the air, the sky rushing around him in a blur. He kept trying to think of a decent answer to the problem. Maybe he could grab a tree... except there was none around that he could see. Great, that idea was shot down. He looked down at his hands. Perhaps he could create a flame strong enough to slow down his descent? It shouldn't take too much power to do such a feat, so he wasn't risking his sanity to at least attempt it. He had a hard time judging where the ground was due to the think fog that was around the area, however. He'd better do it now before he hurt himself.

The fanus spread his arms out, his hands igniting as he waited. As soon as his body was engulfed by the fog, he thrust his hands forwards, launching a large fireball into the ground. The attack collided into the ground, exploding and bouncing Rohin back into the air. Folding his arms, Rohin spun in the air, the new arc he created causing him to land on the ground feet-first.

"Huh. That actually worked," He mused to himself before looking around. The fog was still far too thick for him to make out anything even a few yards away from him. This was... inconvenient. He'd have to do the next best thing. He took a deep sniff of the air... and instantly regretted it. The smell was absolutely horrid, and it was made even worse by the fact he had an excellent sense of smell. He covered his mouth, bending over and doing his best not to vomit all over the ground. That would be a horrible first impression to anyone that might have ran into him.

Taking a few seconds to gain his composure, the fanus stood up straight. He had to go in blind, it seemed. Gripping the hilt of Scarlight Calamity, he took his first steps into the swamps, and his first steps to becoming a Huntsman.

Admiral_Stalfos19 · March 22, 2016

As they continued to soar into the air, Lectrie had noted that she and Jillian were etching closer and closer together. She was starting to believe that Irina's calculations were off ever so slightly, and feared that at any moment, the two girls will smack dab into each other and get themselves disqualified over some stupid RNG. Thankfully, Jillian already had the prevention of such a travesty covered the whole time, and right at the last second, she slid the Crested Vaporizer in between her legs and wrapped them around its shaft, and pulled hard in an upward manner. This seemed to be enough to bring all motion that was generated when Jillian was shot out of the cannon to a grinding halt.

“Huh, nice party trick there Jill, but I could do the same!” Lectrie arrogantly called out, “Watch and learn!”

She then whipped out her trusty Doom Spire and tried to do the exact same motion as Jillian did with the Crested Vaporizer. Unfortunately, she failed to take into account that the Crested Vaporizer was forged from Gravity Dust, which was the only thing could've caused Jillian to stop moving mid-air in the first place... never mind stay there. Plummeting downwards through the thick fog, Lectrie thought quickly and flicked the Doom Spire, causing it to widen considerably and hollow out. Now that it was in its new form, Lectrie fired a rocket from the Doom Spire and watched it traverse through the fog in hopes that it would light way down to the surface. It did more than what Lectrie was expecting; it'd blown one of the many rotting pieces of wood drifting in the center of the lake from whence she was falling towards into smithereens, and the explosion had pushed aside many of the other things found the length of the lake aside so she wouldn't hit anything on the way down. As a finishing touch, Lectrie threw two punches and two kicks, causing a total of four poisonous globules to be shot in order to break the surface, before splashing into the blackened waters before her.

Meanwhile, Jillian scratched her head as she wondered where Lectrie had gone, and the thick fog wasn't helping matters in the slightest. The only logical direction the poor girl could go is down, so that's where Jillian willed the Crested Vaporizer to go. It wasn't long before she found herself hovering over the liquid that she could've sworn was actually tar and not lake water, showing genuine concern that Lectrie may've sunk all the way to the depths of the desecrated oasis. However, that same look of concern instantly transformed into a burst of laughter as Lectrie resurfaced, trying to spit out the water that she accidentally swallowed during her fall.

“NOT FUNNY, JILLIAN!!” Lectrie screamed her head off, “Come help me outta here, already!”

“Hey, I'm not obligated to get you out of the drink just because you said so! We're only supposed to help the person we first see when we touch the ground!” Jillian retorted in a childish manner, pouting as she turned away with her eye closed, “And in all technicality, I haven't actually touched the ground yet.”

Furious about such a dumb statement, Lectrie dived after Jillian in attempt to pull her in as well, but the Crested Vaporizer effortlessly maneuvered itself out of her reach. She spent some time flailing and thrashing about, unable to stay afloat like last time and fighting to stay about the water. However, Jillian once again took initiative, turning the Crested Vaporizer around so the end would be in Lectrie's grasp... with any amount of luck.

“Grab on!” Jillian called out, with Lectrie only just managing to wrap one hand around the Crested Vaporizer before it took off.

She screamed, but whether it was out of delight or terror was hard to discern. In any case, Jillian and Lectrie were on ground, and the former back-flipped off the Crested Vaporizer, a vial of Water Dust falling out of her pocket as she did so as well as... a random bar of soap? Jillian had completely forgot that she'd snuck a bar of soap out of that hotel she and her parents had stayed at that one time a while back, but now that it was here, Jillian picked up both items and held them out for Lectrie to take.

“Hm?” Lectrie seemed to be confused, “Why're you giving me...?”

“The vial's a spare; we might not even need it for the test itself. As for the soap...” it had taken a while for Lectrie to click onto what Jillian was saying, but during the moment she did, a full blush of red enveloped her face as her eyes widened in shock. It wasn't something she was prepared for.

“A-are you insane?!” Lectrie exclaimed, in a tone that implied that she was outright offended by the offer, “I can't shower out here in public; they'll... they'll all laugh at how flat I am! Either that or some of the boys'll ogle at what few goodies I actually have, mostly because they're creeps...”

She shuddered at the thought of this.

“Y'know what? As much as this sheet reeks(!)... I shall wear it as a badge of honor,” she suddenly decided out of the blue.

“Badge of honor?” Jillian couldn't help but giggle as she asked this, “Aah Lectrie, you're so funny.”

Skyler could not believe her luck. One moment she was grasping desperately at straws to get herself successfully enrolled into Shade Academy, and the next she found herself shot out of a cannon and into the far yonder, scared out of her mind. But she knew damn well she had to act; lest she die the very moment she hit the ground, her corpse being nothing more than street pizza. Her hands were shaking, but Skyler had withdrew one of her many Mulligan Incisors and pulled the pin, holding it above her head ready to throw. She had one job, but yet she couldn't go through with it. Something must've happened that caused the poor Skyler to freeze in fear.

Incidentally, the Mulligan Incisor exploded in Skyler's hand, forcing her downwards at a faster rate than she was already going. In a panic attack, Skyler pulled the pins from all the Mulligan Incisors she had on her person, dropping many of them as move from one to another. The resulting explosions had flung her from one direction to another at varying speeds, much like a pinball in the sky. She must've gone through at least 30 of these before hitting the ground, sprawling across the sand dunes as if she were a doll that had been aimlessly thrown away. Skyler had been out cold for some time now, but as she finally opened her eyes, she saw a faunus come down just above her... the same musclebound one that previously fought with Lectrie and stepped on her toe. His body was positioned in a streamline for the fall, and it didn't appear that he intended on making any form of landing strategy. However, his aura burst into life just a few feet above the ground, encircling him as he smashed into the sand below. This in turn sent a wave of the stuff all around the faunus and in Skyler's direction. Skyler tried to force herself to slither away before it could bury her, but it was much too weak for that...

...

Thankfully, the wave of sand hadn't buried Skyler's body completely, and the very end of her could be seen sticking out. The other faunus had spotted this, and yanked it in order to pull Skyler free... though he was holding her upside-down, and not in the most dignified manner either.

“Oh, it's you,” he said before he dropped her, about to leave before he found himself turning back, “Hey kid; come look at this,”

Interest piqued, Skyler slowly rose back to her normal height that she liked to stand at and cautiously apporached the musclebound faunus. Unlike with Lectrie, the faunus didn't seem to show as much hostility towards Skyler... although that was more than likely because the timid snake girl would always go out of her way to ensure she didn't inadvertently provoke anyone. She never liked it when people openly expressed anger, and she couldn't trust that this faunus would stay calm for long.

“Wh-what is it?” Skyler asked timidly. The rhino faunus took his time to answer, but then suddenly...

“Steam Dust. Looks like it's coming from underground. We'd have to come back here next year or something before I can verify this, but... if I were a gambling man, I'd bet half my money that that's what's causing this so-called 'fog',” the faunus then turned to Skyler just as he'd finished with his hypothesis, “While we're here, I suppose we might as well introduce ourselves. The name's Zachariah Cerule, but you can call me Zach if you wish. And... you are?”

“SSSS-Skyler, n-nice to... huh?” Skyler paused as she saw Zachariah's eye twitch. She'd gotten away with avoiding hostilities so much by introducing herself only by her first name and never her last, but now of a sudden she found herself instinctively retreating, out of fear that she had touched a nerve. Having witnessed Zachariah's scuffle with Lectrie didn't help, but if nothing else, Skyler could at the very least brace her ears for the inevitable...

“...as in Skyler Gallegos?” Zachariah asked, initially through gritted teeth, “The same jabroni whose old man just so happened to bust out of the VCF just a few minutes ago and take a good portion of the White Fang with him, ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!! Are you actually kidding me?!”

“I-I-I d-don't underst-stand what my father was thinking either!” Skyler panicked, “Please, I c-can't atone for wh-what he did, and I... I-I'm s-so sorry! I really am! I just... I just...”

“God, damn it all to hell! My life just keeps getting worse by the second!” Zachariah intervened, stopping Skyler from continuing with her hopeless stuttering, “Forget it; we don't have time for your sniveling. Let's just find the relics and get this over with,”

“Um... O...K,” replied a hesitant Skyler, before letting out a brief sigh, 'I hope he'll be OK... I really do'

With a large gulp, Skyler slithered a good distance behind Zachariah, figuring she'd best give him some space...

Premier Alexander Romanov · March 23, 2016

Nestled in the back of the Bullhead was a cloaked figure, happily snoozing away in her cocoon of black fabric. She had been completely ignored by everyone, and thus had continued to sleep, until a fellow passenger walked to her and after some determination, held up a tangerine near the opening of the hood. The mass of fabric stirred, and allowed for the lower half of a pale face to poke out, the nostrils flaring as it sniffed the air, before pulling back her lips to reveal sharp fangs. Immediately upon determining the scent of something it desired on an animalistic level, the cloaked figure surged forward and clamped its fangs against the skin, liquid spurting from the punctures. The figure dragged its prey closer, and continued to feed on the rich, succulent, energizing and revitalizing juice that it so instinctively craved. Finally, after its hunger was sated, it got up, dropping the drained husk of its victim, and pulled off the cloak to reveal itself to be a young girl in her teens, with jet-black hair done into curls, red eyes that glowed in the low light of the compartment, and a red and black Gothic Lolita ensemble, complete with a big bow in her hair. She, in turn, stared up at a black-haired, slightly-tanned girl that looked older than she was, wearing a combination of denim and leather with a brown rimmed hat and protective shades over her blue eyes, her hair tied into a braid to make it not interfere with anything she might get involved in.

The elder girl stared at the deflated tangerine lying on the floor of the compartment and whistled. "Looks loike I guessed correctly regahrdin yore species, lil' leidy."

The younger girl blinks a few times, still waking up. ""How...how did you know I was a bat Faunus?" She groggily inquires.

"You slept tha entoira way heia, loike a tun a bricks. Eitha you were a sloth or somethin nocturnal, an believe me, I've met sloth Faunuses. Nut fun ta deal with, but that asoide, most o' tha sluggish an seriously nocturnal Faunuses ken be motiveited voia instinct. I heppened ta hev a tangerine left ovah from me lunch, so I geive it to ya. Looks loike it did tha trick."

"It did. I'm Carmilla, by the way." The Faunus extended a hand to her new acquaintance, before her eyes widened in recognition. ""You're...You're Uekleva Gill!"

The human starts to blush and chuckles softly. "Thet I am. I teike it you're a fen of Da's show?"

""Am I ever!" Carmilla exclaims. ""Hugo Ovatheya is the greatest Grimm expert on all of Remnant! I was rooting for you during the whole of Grimm Hunter: Apprenticeship!"

"I am very flettered, but it was more than just winnin a free scholarship from me Da. It was about figurin out if I was his daughta. I mean, yes, all o' us wure his sons and daughtas, but whetha we could ectually live up ta his neime. I at least feel thet I didn't do helf bad."

""'Half bad'?!? You were amazing! The trial with the Boarbatusks was incredible! You just strode through using your Semblance to-"

"Cahmilla, I appreciate you bein my numbah one fen, but we caime heah for a raison, an I think you don't want to miss out on bein a Huntress as much as I do."

""Right, right! Let's go!" Immediately, the little Faunus started to move, heading out of the Bullhead and off to the staging area, and the human quasi-celebrity followed along as fast as she could.

Behind Caliburn, some rustling could be heard, followed by mechanical stomping, and the chopping of undergrowth. Emerging from the glade was a 2-meter-tall armored figure, colored primarily in a dark gunmetal coloring with yellow sections, a huge sword in one hand, and something pointed and jet-black in the other. With a straining whirr of the armor's servos, the figure pulled out a massive, segmented worm with bone-colored armor plating interlaced with red designs. The creature's many pointy legs were twitching slightly in its spasms, but the damage done to its body was evident. It wasn't getting back up anytime soon. The polarized helmet of the armor turned to him. "Cal, we have a problem." The synthesized male voice spoke gruffly, but Cal could detect the worry in Tamsyn's voice through the armor's speakers. "I decided to go check the lair of that Ground Dweller we killed all those years ago, and found this baby." Tamsyn indicates to the centipede-like Grimm, which was easily as big as a train. "As well as half a dozen others, and a bunch of eggs. I managed to defeat them all, but the eggs were recent. There's an ADULT Ground Dweller nearby. And when she finds out that her nest has been ransacked and her babies are all dead or dying, Momma's going to be PISSED."

"WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

As Carmilla rocketed out of the cannon after putting on her goggles, and soared through the air, she concentrated, and her wings expanded rapidly to each be larger than her body. They caught the wind and Carmilla, instead of falling, started to fly. Well, she was actually gliding, but semantics were semantics. She was enjoying being able to look out over everything and the beautiful sky all around her and the sun that...that was...oh no...She yawned sleepily as the adrenaline of being launched out of a cannon fought with her own nocturnal tendencies, and she began to lazily drift in her flight path, but she struggled against her sleepiness as she tried to find a safe landing spot. She managed to glide herself down to a grassy knoll poking out of the swamp, and set down against the hillside, her energy draining in the presence of the sun overhead. She figured...she could get...a little...batnap...Zzzzzz.....

Uekleva, on the other hand, was not a Bat Faunus, and did not have the capacity to glide like her new acquaintance did, so she started to fall towards the site mentioned by the Headmistress. But she had a plan. She focused, and to either side of her, blue figures popped up that materialized into duplicates of herself. Similarly, to the front and back, two more copies of herself formed on each side, with a final two, one each above and below her. Her Semblance could create Decoys, illusory versions of herself made solid by giving up some of her Aura for each. They were also powered by that Aura, and would exist and do as she wished until the Aura was depleted. This meant that, as she curled up into a ball and her Decoys clambered around her, that each of the Decoys could only exist until they were acted upon by a force strong enough to deplete the small amount of Aura they were composed of, such as, say, the impact of their hurtling mass against the ground.

But Uekleva wasn't intending for any of her new constructs to survive. They were currently expendable ablative shielding for her to land safely.

She only hoped that it was enough.

She felt one of the Decoys vanish as her cannonball of Ueklevas impacted against a tree, altering her trajectory to bounce a little before falling. The Decoy winked out of existence as it broke apart into a haze of blue energy that quickly dissipated. They then hit the ground, and two more Decoys also shattered into their component Aura. The mass rolled, each sacrifice of a Decoy shedding more and more velocity, until the last one broke, and Uekleva hurtled across a foggy lake to land on a soft sandbar that took the brunt of her fall. She got up and checked her equipment, dusting the sand off as she did so, before noticing a very tall, muscular young man in green camo with spiky blonde hair and striking blue eyes looking at her. She adjusted her hat and blew a strand of hair out of her glasses before greeting him with a friendly "G'day."

Admiral_Stalfos19 · March 26, 2016

“Well then, this should be the last of them,” Irina said after a brief sigh, seriously questioning the potential of this year's candidates overall. First Eton had this bright idea of asking if there were parachutes to be given out, and the next thing Skyler tried to outright back out of the whole launch sequence, which Irina had eventually saw right through. There were a few more dunces that Irina didn't care to name, though thankfully she'd find herself able to weed the majority of them out some time that night. In any case, the last three applicants Irina had called the names of had just been launched from the cannons when Caliburn Artorigus, the leader of Team CMLT, had arrived.

“Headmaster. You will be happy to know that Team CMLT has successfully completed the task you gave us for preparing the glades,” Caliburn said this with a smile at first, but sighed before continuing, most likely because he was dismayed about being the bearer of bad news, “However, things are apparently going not as we had hoped. My teammates and I have noticed an alarming amount of Grimm in the area. And I'm afraid that most of these aren't your typical run of the mill ones. I myself don't have all the details on the other species, but Mary, Lazuli, and Tamsyn have seen them and will be reporting on their sightings.”

“I see,” Irina said simply.

This sounded like the classic case of overpopulation. Not the worst thing that could happen; in fact it might've been insignificant in the case that this happened with the lower classed creatures of Grimm such as the Beowulves or the Boarbatusks. But since the Scapolite Glades were known to house more powerful species of Grimm, this news would certainly be more troubling. However, Irina would need to know exactly how bad this overpopulation of Grimm had gotten before she could act. Sure enough, Mary and Lazuli were the next two students to arrive, with the latter claiming to bear witness to three Death Stalkers, and the former mentioning there were at least two King Taijitus.

“I also took some time to analyze the plant life of the area and noticed that through the years it got a lot worse,” Mary had went on to say, “If someone gets wounded, infection would be quite probable if they were to touch any of the plant life. I feel like some help from us might be necessary. Now that I'm thinking about it... hiding the relic under the mud probably wasn't the most brilliant idea. Anyway, my analysis isn't 100% accurate and I might need a bit more time to find the poisonousness of the plants and the mold.”

“The... toxicity, I believe was the word you were looking for, should only be a tertiary concern at most, preferably not at all,” Irina said flatly, “You need to remember, Mary, that the hazardous environment that the Glades presents is part of the test, and the risk of infection being in the back of one's mind will in theory persuade each one of these candidates to choose their battles wisely. And besides, we always had and will have nurses on standby in the event that medical treatment is necessary. But your primary concern should be eliminating the excess Grimm. Should we leave them unchecked, they'll present a more... immediate threat to our candidates' lives.”

She was about to instruct Team CMLT on what to do from there, but then the sound of machine footing contacting the ground could be heard in the distance, as was the sound of another type of body being dragged along the desert sand. Tamsyn was on her way alright, and once she arrived...

“Cal, we have a problem. I decided to go check the lair of that Ground Dweller we killed all those years ago, and found this baby. As well as half a dozen others, and a bunch of eggs,” she indicated to the creature of Grimm that she'd been dragging alongside her, which had the appearance of a centipede clad in bone-white armor. This was a Grimm known as a Ground Dweller, and contrary to what its youth would suggest, it was of a size that wouldn't be uncommon in a locomotive. The worrying thing was that Ground Dwellers were more than capable of growing monumentally larger than that. Thankfully, this specific one didn't seem to look all that healthy. Judging by the state of its body, it was clear that Tamsyn had done a number on it, but it had to have been clinging onto life in some way, shape or form; even if it was barely. Otherwise its body would've disintegrated itself in front of her like the corpses of all the other Grimm that were slain.

“I managed to defeat them all,” Tamsyn continued on, wrapping up her report, “But the eggs were recent. There's an adult Ground Dweller nearby. And when she finds out that her nest has been ransacked and her babies are all dead or dying, Momma's going to be pissed.”

The entire report was given to Caliburn by the sounds of things, but it was Irina that had reacted to it. She had taken out what looked to be a golden pen and held it upside-down, gripping it with both hands and with all her might. As she did, this... 'pen', had bulked up considerably, and as she raised it over her head, a hilt and crossguards began to form. Finally, a massive eight-foot blade sprung out from the hilt, and with a single bound, Irina garnered plenty of momentum for the blade to come crashing down on the Ground Dweller's skull. It even managed to cut down a good portion of the creature's spine before barely resting above the hand of Tamsyn's mech unit, and this was more than enough to finish the Grimm off. As the Ground Dweller's corpse evaporated around the Yearning Reaver, and as she panted in an attempt to regulate her breathing, Irina turned her gaze towards where Tamsyn's head would be inside that unit, and she'd locked on a gaze of pure venom. Normally she'd be a lot calmer than this, but from the look in her eyes, one could tell that it was taking every ounce of Irina's strength to keep her new-found anger in check, and re-establish some form of composure.

“You mean... to tell me... that you'd enraged... an Adult Ground Dweller(!)... and potentially left our candidates to die out there?!” she vented, still panting through what she was trying say and inhaling heavily afterwards... only to release a deep sigh of frustration as she slung the Yearning Reaver back over her left shoulder, “This is a serious setback.”

She needed time to figure out how Team CMLT could possibly handle the Adult Ground Dweller, although now that she was at least a little calmer, Irina began to formulate a plan. She started by disabling the algorithm that she used to randomize the co-ordinates that the three cannons to use, and inputted some new ones that would result in the cannons firing their occupants into the Ground Dweller's nest. Irina then set the entire file to one side and opened up the directory to see which of the senior teams whose members she had on speed-dial. One of these teams stood out in particular, as Irina had found their leader to be especially reliable.

“Alright, this will most likely be a long shot, but here's what we're going to do,” Irina started to unravel her plan for Team CMLT, “I will contact one of the other senior teams to help you deal with the Ground Dweller and brief them on the situation at hand. They will arrive here by Bullhead, and drop me off somewhere close to where the rest of the excess Grimm can be found before heading towards your location. You lot, meanwhile, will need to intercept the Adult Ground Dweller as soon as possible, preferably before it reaches its nest and discovers that the nest had been attacked. Tamsyn, since you can cover the most ground under normal circumstances, you should go on ahead, although I hope that mech of yours has its boosters adequately fueled and suggest that you use them if that's the case. The rest of you will need to enter the three cannons. I've just set them up so that you'll land near the nest that Tamsyn had discovered earlier, so you should have a head start on that Ground Dweller with any luck. The candidates will very likely have engaged some of the other Grimm, and I can handle the rest of them on my own. But we need as many senior Huntsmen and/or Huntresses on the Ground Dweller as we can possibly spare. Your mission is to lure it away from the candidates and keep it away until the initiation test is complete. Once that happens, you should ideally make a full-scale retreat back to the academy, although you may stop it from pursuing you if it attempts to do so. Failure is not an option here, so don't take any chances.”

[spoiler=OOC Notes:]I was planning to post for Skyler, Jill, Zach and Lectrie as well, but this post is quite literally massive enough and I need to keep the plot moving forward at all costs. In any case, you all now have permission to engage the Grimm that are present within the Scapolite Glades... except the Adult Ground Dweller in the case that you're not a part of Team CMLT. The juniors will have their crack at it momentarily. Speaking of the Scapolite Glades, I'll make a slight adjustment to its entry in the database. I only had the Goliath in there because none of the other species screamed boss material, but now all of a sudden I'm liking the Adult Ground Dweller as the boss for this scenario in its place. Expect the swap over momentarily, as well as the update on the Grimm Database.

...

Also, reminder for Team CMLT that unlike the juniors, Caliburn, Mary and Lazuli will not be shaken up by the cannons. They'll most likely be shot straight out.

King K. Azo · March 27, 2016

Rohin sighed as he walked through the swamp. He hadn't seen any sign of any life, or these 'artifacts' they were supposed to find. Honestly, he was getting frustrated. At this second, he wouldn't even mind running into a Grimm. At least it would give him something to do. He sighed again, resting Scarlight Calamity on his shoulder.

"You know, I'm gonna have to make my own one day," He thought to himself. "Needs a cool name though... Tyrant Nova? Jeweled Tyrant? Eh, I'll work on it later," He yawned as he stretched, before something in the sky caught his eye. It was a large black blob in the fog, but he could tell it was diving straight at him. The fanus took a leap back, the blob smashing into the ground. He could now clearly see what was attacking him, and yes, it was a Grimm.

The monster in question had the head, wings and talons of a large predatory bird while the rear legs, tail and body resembled a lion. It was covered in both fur and feathers as black as night, with white bone-like spines on its body, including a row of bony spikes on its wings, as well as a white birdlike skull. On its head, it had a bone-white beak and four red eyes, along with gray webbing on the sides of its beak. So he was being attacked by a Griffon, huh?

"I would offer you a chance to step aside, but we both know that's foolish," Rohin simply stated as he got into a stance, putting Scarlight back in its sheath before holding up his fists and igniting them using his semblence. The Griffon roared back in response before charging at the fanus.

Rohin dove to the side as the Grimm charged, throwing his hand forwards and launching a fireball at the bird/cat/thing, making it screech in pain. The fanus then rolled across the ground to get back on his feet and dashed at the Griffon, throwing a punch into its side, pushing it back slightly. The Grimm turned, rearing up and swiping at Rohin with a claw, but the fanus was able to roll under it. He then popped up, uppercutting it under its beak. The Grimm squawked in pain, but retaliated with a close combat claw swipe, striking Rohin and causing him to be thrown back a few feet.

The Griffon started to flap its wings, wanting to get airborne. Rohin gritted his teeth and grabbed Scarlight Calamity, quickly drawing it out and squeezing a button right below the handle, the sword producing clicking noises as its links disengaged, letting the sword fall appear and transform into a whip. Rohin swung with the intention of having the whip wrap around the Grimm's next, but the whip flew over the monster's head. Rohin growled in frustration. He needed to work on this weapon more.

The Griffon took off, flying out of range of the whip and circling around Rohin, roaring at him. Responding with his own roar, Rohin began to rapidly punch toward the direction of the Grimm, launching a fireball with each punch. The Griffon managed to dodge each attack and roared, almost as if it was taunting him. Rohin could feel himself become angrier and angrier. He'd need to be careful, before he...

Wait... Was someone whistling?

Kyng · March 27, 2016

Idly whistling and waltzing through the swamp was Fay. She was completely lost, with no idea where she was heading. And yet at the same time her spirits did not seem to diminish, her smile brandished on her face unfalteringly. She was far too excited at the prospect of her teammate, the one she’d be partnered with for the next four years. Some might think the first person you see being designated that person, for the next four years, would be absolutely ridiculous, but to Fay it was nothing short of romantic, letting fate decide who’d be her partner. She couldn’t help but wonder at who’d she get.

Deep down she had hopes it’d be Reiner, naturally, as she couldn’t shake the hunk from her head.

However her gaze was soon caught by something else. A looming figure in the distance, that seemed to divebomb into the swamp. While doubtfully to be a person, it might be her chance and yet, at the same time, with the risk of it being Grimm significantly higher, she had made sure to get her bow on the ready. Heading into the distance she steeled her resolve and called out.

“Hey! Is anybody out there there?” Fay called, hoping if there was a person in the distance they’d respond though it seemed to no avail. With a sigh she grumbled. "I feel I keep talking to myself..." However the sight before her more than sated that worry in the back of her mind.

Before her was a towering blonde fellow. Not Reiner, just shy of his height and his clothes didn’t match at all. What’s more was he was fighting the figure she saw just a few moments ago - a Grimm, naturally, but a Griphon of all sorts. He was putting up one hell of a good fight too. As she got a look of his face…

...h-his...handsome...w-wha-...?

Reiner was out, this guy was in.

However, the field of flowers washed away once again into the swampy battleground as the Gryphon took flight. The faunus failed to lashed his weapon’s whip-state at the Gryphon and was now firing volley after volley of fireballs in an attempt to bring it down. She could tell he was enraging, especially given the Gryphon’s taunting nature. She would not stand for it. If this guy was who she’d be spending four years with, she’d not let a stupid beast rile him up like this.

With a soft wolf whistle, she let loose a hardlight arrow, piercing the Gryphon in the chest which soon had it eating its own taunt. Caught off guard, it could do little to stop the barrage of fire blasting it asunder. The faunus’ firepower was clearly enough to ground the flying menace.

“Nice one, cutie-pie. You pack a punch~!” Fay giggled as she ran on up to Rohin’s side. “I’m Fay Reine. I guess I’ll be your partner, hm~?” She flaunted a soft little wink as she enjoyed their brief moment. The Gryphon’s skwark, however, had her furrow her brow in frustration - how dare it interrupt her gawking time?!

Nonetheless it was clear the fellow was fiercely fighting the beast. Fay gently extended her arm, gesturing he finish off his quarry.

Super Chaos Sonic · March 27, 2016

-Caliburn-

“Cal, we have a problem. I decided to go check the lair of that Ground Dweller we killed all those years ago, and found this baby. As well as half a dozen others, and a bunch of eggs. I managed to defeat them all, but the eggs were recent. There's an adult Ground Dweller nearby. And when she finds out that her nest has been ransacked and her babies are all dead or dying, Momma's going to be pissed.”

It took every fiber in Caliburn's being not to just move and punch Tamsyn...though it wouldn't have done any damage to her whatsoever. The Ground Dwellers... Caliburn shuddered at the mere mention of this Grimm's name. He remembered how he and the rest of his team struggled against these creatures when they first started out.

However...now they were stronger.

"Your mission is to lure it away from the candidates and keep it away until the initiation test is complete. Once that happens, you should ideally make a full-scale retreat back to the academy, although you may stop it from pursuing you if it attempts to do so. Failure is not an option here, so don't take any chances.”

Caliburn nodded as Irina spoke her plan to CMLT. "Understood, Headmaster." he said, as he turned on his heel, leading the rest of Team CMLT towards the cannons. "CMLT...here is the plan. We do what Headmaster Irina said...with the exception of making the full-scale retreat." he spoke in a low enough voice. "Tam, we'll have a chat about this later. But for now...we're stopping the Dwellers."

With this said, Caliburn and his team headed into the cannons. An exhale was heard from Caliburn as he reached to his sides, removing the twin pistols: Pendragon from their holsters as he loaded the magazines into them. A quick spin on his index fingers then he put them back in the holsters when the cannons finally went off.

It was nostalgic for Caliburn to feel himself being shot from the cannon. However, he was immune to the obvious shaken up that would come with it.

"CMLT...give the Grimm hell...as always!" he chuckled.

Cherz · March 29, 2016

Reiner had hardly moved from his position, as the thick fog had made it hard for him to decide a direction to move in. Everything was so obscured. Before he could go any further, he heard something land near him. Reiner turned around when he heard a "G'day." They made eye contact, and so it was done. He knew she was now his partner. He sized her up. Her stance told him she was confident, a trait he liked. Well, now that they were partners, he supposed he should introduce himself to her.

"Hey, I'm Reiner. Who might you be?"

However, their introduction was rather short lived. From the thick fog, a pack of Creeps had set in. 7 of them in total. Checking his gear, he looked to his new partner.

"Try to keep up." He said, before dashing at the lead Creep. He looked as if he was going to kick it, but right before he did, he pushed off the ground, and lept over it, landing on the second Creep, first first. After pummeling it, he parried the first Creep's strike and kicked it in the stomach, spikes extended from his cleats.

"Hell no."She said under her breath, angrily turning around and leaving the poor boy stuck in the mud. She walked off, looking for a real partner, and she thought she had found one. In the distance, she saw another figure. She approached it, but without the guise of invisibility. She still had to wait a bit longer for that to activate. But the figure must have seen her too, as it began approaching. The closer it got, the larger it became. Ari had stopped, realizing this figure was much larger than she was.

"Oh s***..."She said as she realized that there was a giant tail above the shadowy figure. It was a death stalker, for sure. But not just that, a few more figures had began to approach. She was now close enough to see the Death Stalker and King Taijitu no less than 5 yards from her. She drew her rifle and fired an explosive round at them, before running back the direction she came. Hearing their scream, she soon felt them start the chase.

"That kid! I can't just leave him there. God damn it." She realized, as she was approaching him. She removed the vial containing the Fire Dust in her explosive round, and ran to up Eton, avoiding the obvious thick wet mud spots. She poured the fire dust around him, then blew on it, causing it to catch. His aura would take the brunt of it, but the mud around him had tried and become brittle.

"There isn't much time, I'm being trailed by a King Taijitu and Death Stalker. Get your ass in gear!"She pulled a lever and fired a standard round into the tried mud, causing it to disperse and freeing Eton's leg. Without even waiting, she grabbed his arm and began running. However, the Death Stalker and King Taijitu were in close proximity of them. She fired two more standard rounds behind her shoulder, but was very disappointed when she heard them ricochet off the Death Stalker's armor.

Super Chaos Sonic · April 1, 2016

-Eton-

Eton just remained stuck in the mud, watching Arianna walking off in quite the pissed off mood. A slight sigh escaped his lips, he knew this might've happened. And given her body language and the way she walked off, she obviously wasn't looking at him for a partner.

I-I guess I'm just gonna have to get outta here...m-myself... he thought with a sigh, as he continued to struggle to escape his muddy prison. Still to no avail, he was stuck.

It felt like a few more moments passed, but he suddenly heard the loud screams emerging from the glades. He swallowed hard, worried that he knew exactly what it might've been. But his questions would have to wait now... He saw Arianna running back towards him. His heart was all a flutter now. Perhaps she finally decided for him to be her partner...maybe...

"There isn't much time, I'm being trailed by a King Taijitu and Death Stalker. Get your ass in gear!"

Eton's face turned pale as he heard Arianna say this he got out of the now brittle mud. Fire Dust, it was a wonder. He finally got up near her, only to be pulled by the woman as the two began to run now.

"W-Whoa...h-hey! What are we running from?!" Eton shouted, turning his head around slightly, his eyes widening as he saw the King Taijitu and a Death Stalker. "N-Never mind! Stupid question answered!!"

-BGM-

He watched as Arianna shot two rounds at the Death Stalker, only to see them ricochet off it's armor. He looked around and then grabbed Arianna's wrist. "Q-Quick...this way!" he instinctively said, pulling her off to the left.

Eton wasn't sure what he was doing, but he knew he needed to help out some way. As he ran with Arianna, he fumbled and tightened up his fingerless gloves and arm-guards. This was his weapon: Howling Wolves. "Listen...I-I know hitting the Death Stalker head on isn't going to help...but try and aim for a weak spot!" he quickly said to Arianna. W-What am I doing? I-I'm scared to death...b-but I'm trying to tell her what to do? Jeez... he thought, before turning around.

He watched as the Death Stalker drew near. With a faint exhale, Eton lifted up both of his hands and pointed his index fingers towards it. He knew that the woman would've thought he was crazy. But it would make sense soon...

"Three...two...NOW!!" he finally shouted, bending his thumbs ever so slightly. Soon from his index fingers shout out two separate rounds of red ammo...Fire Dust ammunition. Eton watched as his shots hit at the Death Stalker's back legs, causing it to stop slightly. "Yes!!"

King K. Azo · April 2, 2016

Rohin was glad to find out he was not as crazy as he first thought he was. After he heard the whistle, an arrow that seemed to be made of pure light shot through the fog, piercing the Gryphon in the chest. With the pain catching it off guard, the fireballs Rohin had launched collided into the Grimm, causing it to crash into the ground.

“Nice one, cutie-pie. You pack a punch~!” Rohin looked over and saw a girl run over. She was almost a foot shorter than him, with long blonde hair and striking green eyes. “I’m Fay Reine. I guess I’ll be your partner, hm~?” She flaunted a soft little wink at him. His face heated up and his heart felt like it was beating a little faster. What the hell? What was this feeling? How was she causing them? Was it magic? Her semblence?

The girl... Fay... gently extended her arm. It took him a few seconds to register the meaning of said gesture. It did click eventually, and he nodded with a smile. He ran off towards the fallen beast, pressing the button so the whip retracted back into a sword. With a mighty roar, he jumped into the air, bringing down Scarlight and cleaving the monster in half. Seeing it dissipate into black smoke made him grin, and with that victory, he put Scarlight back into its sheath.

He turned and headed back to Fay, holding out his hand. "Rohin Bane. Guess we're partners now, huh?" He tried to give a friendly smile, although he wasn't sure if it did look friendly. Here's hoping.

Mr. Hyde · April 5, 2016

You could cut the tension with a knife-gun at this meeting. Even though Lazuli was the second to last to arrive, he could tell that the mood was a bit...off. Everyone's eyes shot daggers at Tasmyn

"Your mission is to lure it away from the candidates and keep it away until the initiation test is complete. Once that happens, you should ideally make a full-scale retreat back to the academy, although you may stop it from pursuing you if it attempts to do so. Failure is not an option here, so don't take any chances.”

"Ahhh the old Grimm Gramm Flimm Flamm plan...neve ceases to fail." Set up CMLT as a diversion so that the big guns could show up. It was a solid plan. It was to be expected Irina after all. However, he didn't like the fact that the team would have to play the worm on the hook. Of course, it was better them than the rookies. He hoisted Prometheus' Pride on it's strap, and over his back. "We've fought tougher...I don't think we've killed tougher...but we've definitely tried to fight tougher!" He said with a half smile. As Cal made his way towards the cannons, the team followed.

"CMLT...here is the plan. We do what Headmaster Irina said...with the exception of making the full-scale retreat. Tam, we'll have a chat about this later. But for now...we're stopping the Dwellers."

A snicker could be heard escaping Lazuli.

"Oooooohm! You're in trouble now Tamsyn!" He was still giggling as the cannon shot them all off back into the Glades.

"CMLT...give the Grimm hell...as always!"

"Yeah yeah hotshot. Let's just try not to die today, okay?"

Cosmo. · April 5, 2016

"Your mission is to lure it away from the candidates and keep it away until the initiation test is complete. Once that happens, you should ideally make a full-scale retreat back to the academy, although you may stop it from pursuing you if it attempts to do so. Failure is not an option here, so don't take any chances.”

"That is not very reassuring but okay." Said Mary as she was getting ready to be launched. "We've fought tougher...I don't think we've killed tougher...but we've definitely tried to fight tougher!" "The same could be said by the Grimm's perspective, wait that's not reassuring too. Ugh. Also, i heard there will be a celebration in honor of one of the new student's birthday! Will there be cake? I want cake! Better, i want a dragon shaped cake! Wait, i want a dragon MADE of cake! Let's go slay these Grimm so we can get our cake!"

"CMLT...give the Grimm hell...as always!" Cal said.

"Ok, but first we have to land safely, you know... so... Howling Gale!" She said as she unsheathed Alkalurops and a series of bright lines could be seen forming on the ground beneath them. The generated wind softened the fall making it seem like they just fell on a cushion. "I could do this all day!" Mary said laughing. "Now, where is the ugly thingy?"

Admiral_Stalfos19 · April 5, 2016

Zachariah trudged onwards through the desecrated oasis that was the Scapolite Glades for quite some time, but Skyler's pace was slowing by the second. Her gaze was fixated on the sand in front of her, and she had the tips of all her fingers aligned with the middle of her brain and kept them there for the duration of her slithering behind Zachariah. It was likely that Skyler was trying to make sense of what exactly she was detecting with her Semblance, and if she was, it would certainly explain why she was unaware that the rhinoceros faunus had garnered such a lead on her. He did say that he wanted to get this relic searching over and done with, to be fair. But still...

“There's just so many Grimm here,” Skyler muttered to herself, although Zachariah heard this as well, “I just...”

“Of course there's Grimm here, why else would...?” Zachariah scoffed for a second before pausing in an epiphany, “Wait. Define 'so many'.”

“...I-I'm sorry. I need a few seconds to think,” said Skyler, as she slowly moved her right hand away from her head but kept the fingers of the left right where they were; it was this right hand that Skyler would use to point out the locations of the creatures of Grimm that she managed to detect, “Um... there's about 3 or 4 Death Stalkers by a rotting tree over there, another there and another there, 4 King Taijitus over by that lake, um... I could've sworn there was a Nevermore hovering above us some-; Oh! There it is right there! Then there're 7... 6... 5 Creeps over that way now, and a Griffon just died right the hell over there too. I think there were 8 more in that direction?”

Zachariah couldn't help but shake his head and wonder if Skyler was making all these numbers and all these directions up in an effort to try and intimidate him, and the uncertainty in her voice was not helping in the slightest. But if that was the case then Skyler would've failed miserably; Zachariah was adamant that Irina would not allow numbers to grow that preposterously large, and that the only way such an unlikely event could be remotely possible would be if one of the senior teams that Irina had sent to thin down the population had funked up badly. However, the only reason Zachariah was so adamant of all this was because he was hoping these people at Shade Academy would be smart enough not to have inadvertently sent their candidates into some kind of death trap. There was only one way to be sure...

“OK, we're going to that lake you pointed out earlier,” he decided

“W-Wait!” Skyler exclaimed in panic, “I just said there were 4 King Taijitus there! Wh-what'll we d-do if we f-find them?!”

“I'll know you're not pulling sheet out of your ass, for one!” Zachariah yelled back, “And for two(!)... we'll cross that bridge when we come to it I guess,”

...

Sure enough, Skyler and Zachariah found themselves at one of the seven lakes within the Scapolite Glades, and sure enough, there were exactly 4 King Taijitus right at that specific lake. Skyler was right after all... well her Semblance was, anyway. The obvious thing to do here was to turn back immediately and look elsewhere for a relic, seeing as though the slippery snake faunus' point had been proven. But Zachariah had predicted a relic to be right there in the mud near the edge of the lake itself, and the King Taijitus had positioned as though they were guarding that point with their lives. There was no telling why he predicted this... aside from him automatically assuming that a relic would purposely placed somewhere that would force a candidate into the worst scenario possible. It'd be more realistic to assume the Taijitus weren't there at the time the relic was placed and that the senior students in charge had learned how to evade detection from the creatures of Grimm, but in any case, Zachariah and Skyler would not find themselves so fortunate. Between the former's anger and the latter's fears, it was no surprise that the King Taijitus detected their presence with ease and responded immediately, surrounding the two before either had the chance to turn tail and run. Zachariah in turn assumed a defensive position, holding the Savage Defender in front of him and putting his back to Skyler's, with Ghostwalker off to one side. Skyler herself, meanwhile, scrambled in frisking herself for any spare Mulligan Incisors that she hadn't already used up.

“Bad time to be unprepared, genious!” Zachariah exclaimed in a sarcastic tone.

“Aight, hop on,” Jillian told Lectrie, “We can find these things faster and get it done,”

“Fair enough,” Lectrie shrugged her shoulders as she said this, “Though I don't know how you expect us to see anything. This fog is as thick as funk!”

She hopped onto the Crested Vaporizer nonetheless, and it had taken off. They looked far and wide for any sign of the relics, and yet Jillian and Lectrie were no closer to finding the relics than when they had set off. And unfortunately, Skyler wasn't around to warn the duo about any impending Grimm. The search was getting more and more frustrating by the second; especially for Lectrie, since Jillian managed to alleviate some of the boredom by doing zig-zags and loop-dee-loops. However, the fun couldn't last, as the two inevitably came across a Nevermore that was searching for prey from above. Jillian wasn't phazed by the sight of this avian Grimm; though whether it was because she was confident in her abilities to defeat it or unaware of its true fighting capabilities was hard to guess. But what mattered was that Jillian pulled up right next to the Nevermore.

“'Sup, boid,” she said nonchalantly, while Lectrie aimed the hollowed Doom Spire right at its face... with a smirk on her own.

Kyng · April 9, 2016

Watching the fellow nod to her extended hand, before go off and finish the Grimm on the ground, Fay didn’t exactly know what to say - especially when he re-extended his hand. Seemed somewhat odd, but eh, not all the hunks in the world were sound up there, eh? She shrugged it off, didn’t think too much on it and shook his hand with a nod, smirking softly at the notion of the big dumb brute as she giggled.

“Mhm, we sure are!”

With that done and dusted, Fay figured it’d be best to find what they had came here for. Forming a pair of hardlight wings she gently hovered up to try and get a clearer view of the surroundings for a sense of direction, but alas it’d be no good. There was simply too much fog. However, it would make sense that the cannons they were launched from would throw them in the direction of their objective, right? With that assumption she gently simmered on back down to the ground, disappating her wings in the process before pointing towards their launch trajectory.

“I reckon we’ve been launched in this direction for a reason. So, unless you’ve got any brighter ideas, hot stuff, I’d say we get going this way, hm?”

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[IC Thread] RWBY: A Fang's Mark (Always Accepting)

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